The twins spun around to find themselves facing a shadow grizzly bear. Ren and Adrik emerged from the gallery door and snuck past it, running toward the stern. Rosie galloped after them.
To get the twins off their tails, I cut through a passage to the port side and went the wrong direction, toward the concert. “Hey, fellas!” I taunted. “You’re missing the best song!”
A group of Stormtroopers turned their attention from the music. “Stop!” they shouted.
Jordan and Bird burst out of a door behind me. I was trapped.
Suddenly, the deck behind the twins exploded in flames. Rosie had doubled back and was trying to barbecue them. As much as I wanted to get away from Jordan and Bird, I for sure didn’t want Prince and all the innocent people on board to get hurt.
That’s when I saw a row of sprinklers lining the overhang. I hurled a wave of smoke to activate them, and the twins recoiled from the spraying water.
I flew past them, toward the stern and my friends.
As I did, Jordan yelled, “You’ll die on this boat!”
He hit me with an electrical current so strong it ran through my veins at blinding speed and threw me off my feet. I spun in midair and crash-landed on my back. Out of pure instinct, I willed Fuego into spear mode and aimed it at the twins. The moment the weapon left my hand, regret pounded its fists against my bones.
Rosie had me by the collar, dragging me away as Fuego slammed into Jordan’s chest. The twin fell to his knees, blood trickling from his mouth.
His eyes met mine, and I could tell my face was imprinting on his brain.
No! You can’t die!
If Jordan died now, Quinn would never get mixed up with him, and Brooks wouldn’t come to my school to tell me about the prophecy I was a part of. It would mess up the future for sure!
Bird drew some kind of light around his brother and helped him to his feet. Did that mean he was going to be okay?
The next thing I knew, Rosie had leaped off the side of the boat with me in tow. As we soared through the air, I saw Prince on the bow, gazing up at the stars as if he was clueless about the chaos that had erupted all around him.
Rosie and I splashed into the cold sea. The water gripped me hard as Fuego circled back into my grasp. Jazz pulled Betty alongside us and hauled me up while Rosie scrambled into the boat. The others were already there—Ren shivering under a blanket, and Adrik standing at the stern, hollering up at Prince, “Diamonds and Pearls forever!”
“They had security cameras!” I shouted at Jazz.
He nodded. “I totally took care of that. Scrambled their feed.”
Heart pounding, I took a quick look around. “Where’s Brooks?”
“Not here, and we can’t wait any longer,” Jazz said. “The twins are already getting into their speedboat.”
I grabbed his shirt. “We can’t leave her. She’s got the devourer.”
“The what?” Jazz raised his eyebrows in confusion.
Just then, Brooks burst out of the water in hawk form with the devourer clinging to her back. She let out a piercing cry of triumph right before she blended into the inky sky.
“Never mind,” I said to Jazz.
We sped away across the water, reaching airborne speeds, but it wasn’t fast enough. Within two minutes, the hero twins were racing behind us. It was as if Fuego hadn’t done any damage to Jordan at all. Electrical bolts flew at us like bullets.
I created a wall of smoke, obscuring their view.
“They saw me,” I told Ren and Adrik, careful not to let Jazz overhear.
“Maybe they won’t remember you later,” Ren said.
“Maybe they will.”
Adrik leaned in as the wind whipped all around. “They’re too far away for me to steal a memory. You need to let them catch up.”
“We’ll get fried!” Ren said.
Rosie roared with the ferocity of five lions. She shook her head and flashed her fangs.
“How close do you need to be?” I asked Adrik.
“I have no idea,” he said, shrugging. “Maybe fifteen, twenty feet?”
I waved my arms above my head, hoping Brooks was paying attention.
“What are you doing?” Ren shouted.
A few seconds later, Brooks landed on board. She was so well camouflaged against the night sky, I hadn’t even seen her descend. The devourer slipped off the hawk’s back, unconscious. Ren squatted and cradled the toadlike head in her lap.
Jazz glanced over his shoulder with wide eyes. “Great costume! That looks just like Jabba the Hutt!”
Brooks shifted back to human form and man, I wanted to hug her for being so brave. But there wasn’t time. “Can you get Adrik and me close to the twins so he can do his thing?”
“Seriously?”
“We can’t risk them remembering me in the future,” I said, still trying to catch my breath. “Ren, you and Rosie keep Jazz on course for the beach. We’ll meet you there.”
With a sigh, Brooks turned around. Adrik and I gripped her shoulders, and she shifted into a hawk beneath our hands. She launched herself into the darkness with the two of us hunched over her back, trying to remain undetected by Jordan and Bird, whose focus was still on Jazz’s boat.
We soared across the sky, keeping our eyes on the enemy below.
Brooks glided lower and lower. She was in serious stealth mode.
My heart rammed up my throat. We would have one shot at this—a single shot to save the future.
I watched as Betty broke through the waves, Jordan and Bird a mere fifty-ish yards behind.
“They’re still too far away,” Adrik said.
Brooks’s wings flapped silently as we sailed closer and closer to the twins.
Just as Jazz’s boat skidded onto the beach, I whisper-shouted, “Now!”
Adrik lifted a hand to blow a breath and lost his balance. As he began to slip off Brooks, he cried out. I grabbed him by the waistband of his drawstring pants, gripping it so hard I thought my wrist was going to snap. Adrik made a choking sound, which I could only assume meant I was giving him the worst wedgie of his life.
Jordan looked up. His eyes searched the sky and zeroed in on us.
White bolts came flying at us, some slamming into Brooks’s ribs. She screeched and rotated too far to the left, nearly tossing me and Adrik.
Brooks! I yelled telepathically.
I’m okay, she said with a shaky voice. Just hurry.
I felt helpless. I couldn’t put up a smoke screen because it would block Adrik’s view, and I couldn’t scorch or spear the evil jerks, either.
Then an idea occurred to me. Carefully, I created a thin stream of smoke and directed it toward the twins. It was enough to blind them, but not so wide it obscured Adrik’s line of sight. We swept by, slowing down and getting so close I could reach out and touch the brothers. Adrik blew a breath across his palms.
The motor of their speedboat cut out. Jordan and Bird looked at each other and shook their heads like they were disoriented.
We did it! Adrik shouted telepathically as Brooks rocketed toward the shore, where the time rope awaited. A thrill wave washed over me. Had we really done it? Had we really traveled back in time and stolen the gods out from under the twins’ noses?
You okay? I asked Brooks.
Just a little shocked, she said.
Ha, ha.